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The Contemporary Austin RECEIVES $100,000 GRANT FROM THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS

July 12, 2018

Prestigious grant will support a major group exhibition that will span both sites of The Contemporary Austin, opening in fall 2019.

JULY 12, 2018, AUSTIN, TEXAS – Louis Grachos, the Ernest and Sarah Butler Executive Director & CEO of The Contemporary Austin, is pleased to announce The Contemporary Austin has received a $100,000 grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for its upcoming, fall 2019 exhibition, The Sorcerer’s Burden. This is the second Warhol Foundation grant received by the five-year-old institution. Previously, the Warhol Foundation awarded the museum a grant to support the 2015 exhibition Strange Pilgrims.

Exploring the intersection of art and anthropology, The Sorcerer’s Burden will feature new and existing work by emerging and mid-career artists from around the globe. Funding from the Warhol Foundation will support new, site-specific works designed to activate the museum’s urban and outdoor sites: the Jones Center on Congress Avenue and Laguna Gloria on the shores of Lake Austin. The grant will also help fund a scholarly catalogue published in partnership with Radius Books, Santa Fe. The Sorcerer’s Burden is curated by Heather Pesanti, Chief Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Contemporary Austin.

“We are honored to receive support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for Pesanti’s fascinating exploration of art and anthropology, The Sorcerer’s Burden. I am incredibly proud of the scholarship coming from our curatorial team at The Contemporary Austin,” Grachos said. “The Warhol Foundation’s strong leadership in the advancement of contemporary artistic practice is truly an inspiration. I appreciate the foresight of this important grant, which will support thought-provoking scholarship and significant new commissions from internationally-renowned artists.”

THE SORCERER’S BURDEN, FALL 2019The Sorcerer’s Burden traces its genesis to the 1990s when Chief Curator Heather Pesanti was a graduate student in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, a division of Cultural Anthropology, at the University of Oxford, England. Since that time, Pesanti has observed the evolving and complex dialogue between the fields of art and anthropology. Increasingly, a number of contemporary artists appropriate and transform elements found in anthropological practices, and, likewise, the methodologies of anthropologists intersect with various artistic influences to advance ethnographic stratagems. Rich with insights and fresh perspectives, the fusing of art and anthropology also confronts challenging issues related to race, colonialism, identity, religion, and politics. By presenting contemporary works of art that are alternately subversive, humorous, dark, playful, and enchanting, The Sorcerer’s Burden will illuminate the complex nexus of the two fields, highlighting artists who intertwine fact and fiction and interrogate “truth” in cultural knowledge.

Artworks in The Sorcerer’s Burden will represent a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, digital media, and performance. Occupying the entirety of the museum's two sites, the exhibition will consist of new commissions, existing works, and site-specific iterations divided into four themes: Ritual, Magic, Myth, with works that explore history and culture through the lens of storytelling, ritual, and fantasy; Farther Afield, with projects that revolve around fieldwork, community, and performance; The Archaeology of Culture, with works that "mine" culture through people, architecture, and the fragmentation of modernism; and Things, with works that focus on material culture and appropriation.

The Sorcerer’s Burden will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue featuring an essay by Pesanti, as well as original contributions by artists in the exhibition alongside scholars and anthropologists, including artist, critic, and Dean of the Yale University School of Art, Robert Storr. The catalogue will be co-published with Radius Books and distributed by D.A.P. / Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. This will be the second catalogue co-published by The Contemporary Austin and Radius Books, with the exhibition catalogue Rodney McMillian: History is Present Tense forthcoming in fall 2018.

THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN
As Austin's only museum solely focused on contemporary artists and their work, The Contemporary Austin offers exhibitions, educational opportunities, and events that start conversations and fuel the city's creative spirit. Known for artist-centric exhibitions and collaborations, The Contemporary invites exploration at both its urban and natural settings—downtown at the Jones Center (700 Congress Avenue), lakeside at the Laguna Gloria campus (3809 West 35th Street), and around Austin through the Museum Without Walls program. More information about the museum’s exhibitions and programs can be found at thecontemporaryaustin.org.

THE ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS
In accordance with Andy Warhol's will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The Foundation manages an innovative and flexible grants program while also preserving Warhol's legacy through creative and responsible licensing policies and extensive scholarly research for ongoing catalogues raisonnés projects. To date, the Foundation has given over $200 million in cash grants to over 1,000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide. More information is available at warholfoundation.org.